Wind and rain have knocked out crops of our favourite greens. Photo / Supplied
Wind and rain have knocked out crops of our favourite greens. Photo / Supplied
Fast food is the latest victim of the post-cyclone fresh veggie shortage with BurgerFuel having to pull its low-carb burger which replaces burger buns with lettuce leaves.
The Kiwi burger chain has asked customers to bear with them while they overcome the "lettuce famine of 2017" that has left them having to swap out iceberg lettuce for other greenery in their burgers at times.
"Our store staff have worked hard to communicate this to our customers so they are not taken by surprise when their burger looks a little different to what they are used to," a BurgerFuel spokeswoman said.
She said BurgerFuel was trying to maintain the integrity and flavour of their burgers given the changes and recommended customers go for a regular wholemeal or gluten free bun until they could again offer the lettuce-wrapped Low Carborator burger.
BurgerFuel have put this notice in store and online after bad weather wiped out lettuce crops. Photo/Supplied
A wet and wild growing season destroyed crops in commercial growing areas in the North Island, with leafy greens affected by flooding in early April.
The resulting shortages of vegetables has hit supermarket shelves, and left customers to deal with price hikes - and now changes to their fastfood orders.
A BurgerFuel spokeswoman said the loss of lettuce crops made it difficult for suppliers to meet the company's stock requirements.
"At times it has been hard to provide the full amount of crisp, fresh iceberg lettuce that we usually serve in our burgers."
She said it was important for BurgerFuel to be upfront with customers, letting them know that the "lettuce crisis" was affecting the salad quality that they usually expected in their burgers.
"For the most part, our customers have been very supportive and understanding of this issue that is unfortunately outside of our control."
BurgerFuel hoped to be back filling their burgers with fresh, crisp iceberg lettuce in about three weeks.
A message to customers on the BurgerFuel New Zealand website. Photo/Supplied
When will the lettuce shortage end?
It's good news for shoppers as an end to a shortage of leafy greens is in sight.
Horticulture New Zealand CEO Mike Chapman said the availability of veggies such as lettuce and spinach, which were wiped out by heavy rain and flooding, was improving.
"Supply is going better than it has been, so we're expecting to see supply increase and with supply increasing...prices will come back a little bit."
However Chapman said with winter fast approaching, the supply won't be as plentiful as in summer.
"With winter you get cold, wet weather that always puts a bit of a dent in the supply of leafy greens which are basically grown during summer."
He encouraged people to use seasonal vegetables including carrots, parsnips and potatoes instead of summer produce such as lettuce.
The Tasman Tempest brought record amounts of rainfall to the North Island in March. It was closely followed by Cyclone Cook and ex-Cyclone Debbie, which drenched the country.
"The weather cut back supply quite substantially. Lettuce was just destroyed by the heavy rainfall, the plants were just mashed up to nothing," said Chapman.
"It was particularly bad because we had rain event on rain event. Normally you get just one big event and you get a bit of breathing space - we didn't have much breathing space this time."
He said growers would be keeping their fingers and toes crossed for dry weather, so winter supplies could be maintained.
